Class-action suit targets Apple for iCloud downtime

A new lawsuit accuses Apple of participating in "unfair, unlawful, deceptive, and misleading practices" in promoting the simplicity and reliability of its iCloud service.

The complaint was filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by plaintiff Danyelle Comer and discovered by AppleInsider. The filing expresses dissatisfaction with Apple's transition from the paid MobileMe service to its successor, iCloud.

"Throughout the migration, Apple failed to adequately ensure that features MobileMe users were paying for would be accessible, including access to their e-mail accounts for which customers pay additional fees," the complaint reads. "As a result, numerous MobileMe users suffered damage from the inability to access their individual accounts."

The lawsuit asserts that Apple "misrepresented" its iCloud service in advertising it to customers. Specifically, it argues that paying MobileMe customers experienced "devastating consequences," and that Apple should have been better prepared for the transition.

"Unfortunately for many users it doesn't 'just work' and has resulted in a series of headaches due to lack of syncing ability, lack of email functionality and other complications and losses and corruption of data," the suit states. "In fact a number of users have been forced to hire outside technical assistance at significant cost, just to migrate to the iCloud platform or get around it to obtain minimal functionality of emails and other systems."

The complaint cites an AppleInsider report published last October that detailed the inability of users to merge their Apple IDs as causing some issues in the transition from MobileMe to iCloud. Some readers had reached out to share their frustrations, such as one person had used one Apple ID to purchase applications and music that was separate from the e-mail address used for their preexisting MobileMe account. They were left in a position to choose between the e-mail address associated with their MobileMe account, or the Apple ID they used to purchase content.

The lawsuit also focuses on iCloud downtime causing an inability to access e-mail and other services. It accuses Apple of indicating that iCloud and MobileMe e-mail accounts are online and operational, when in fact users are unable to send or receive e-mails.

"Apple's most dedicated consumers, including those who paid for MobileMe service have continually experienced problems with iCloud migration, including lack of email for extended periods," the complaint reads.

The class-action suit accuses Apple of one count of violation of the Magnus-Moss Warranty Act, one count of unjust enrichment, one count of breach of express warranty, one count of breach of implied warranty of merchantability, and violation of the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

For the love of . . . . Is there no end to the "beggary" that is today's legal system? Don't have any skills? Don't have any education? Don't like to work hard? Then don't just play the Lottery: SUE! Money will fall out of the sky upon thine head, and you won't have to do a damned thing to earn it except be a VICTIM. Sainthood has been replaced with victimhood, and the new tablets of Moses are the class action lawsuits. Pathetic.

Someone should let those users who had "devastating consequences" that this law suite will only benefit the lawyers. It would be interesting to read how many on this class action lawsuit had "devasting consequences" or just generally inconvenienced. Isn't MobileMe still currently active or now just ending anyway. I think the iCloud beta had disclaimers on not to rely on.

On the claim of having to choose between two Apple ID's. There is no reason to combine two if you use one for purchases and one for email. I use a different Apple ID for iTunes. This account has been in place since they opened. This account is not based on my email address and have changed its name because of possible security breach. I have separate @me.com Apple ID that I use for Email and developer. Having two didn't cause me issue before and doesn't cause me issue now on iCloud.

devastating? such drama. i dare say that EVERYONE who uses the Internet has backup emails—such as hotmail, google, AND yahoo.

the law firm is the only one that stands to gain, and not the people it represents in this class action suit. whatever amount they're suing for will become pocket money after the legal fees and whatnots are deducted. the final distribution to each person will be pitifully small.

if the law firm is doing this to keep companies in good behavior because it wants to be the good guy, then they should do this for free for the people they represent.

Wow, just wow. People, companies, products, services are not perfect 100% of the time.

I never expect that any service I subscribe to, or software or device that I purchase will operate, without any flaws, all of the time under every circumstance. I find Apple's products and services to be no less reliable than any others, in fact I find them in most cases to be far more reliable. This is just getting stupid.

This country allow the abuse of law in a way that is so ridiculous.. I guess that person didn't took the time to read the terms and conditions of the service.

I had no issue migrating to mobile me, I miss some features but I won't sue Apple cause that... nothing is forever and also the lack of knowledge should not be a reason to blame the provider of any service..

Changing the Service

Apple reserves the right to modify or stop the Service (or any part thereof), either temporarily or permanently, at any time or from time to time, with or without prior notice to you. Without limiting the foregoing, Apple may post on our website and/or send email to your MobileMe account, notice of such changes to the Service. It is your responsibility to review our website and/or check your MobileMe email address for any such notices. You agree that Apple shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification or cessation of the Service.

then bellow says the most important one:

13. Limitation of Liability

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, AS SUCH, TO THE EXTENT SUCH EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS ARE SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, SOME OF THE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS SET FORTH BELOW MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT APPLE AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES , INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF APPLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (I) THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE (II) ANY CHANGES MADE TO THE SERVICE OR ANY TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CESSATION OF THE SERVICE OR ANY PART THEREOF; (III) THE UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (IV) THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE AND/OR SEND OR RECEIVE YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICE; (V) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; AND (VI) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.

Danyelle Comer failed to understand the TOS and is just looking stupid going mad at Apple..

So unless someone can guarantee that their product or service is available every second of every day, they get sued?

Ridiculous.

Would be fair if they guaranteed 100% uptime, I guess.

But I do wish iCloud was a leaner, meaner and more reliable service. It is annoying that Apple can't get iCloud sorted. Using iCloud webmail with a Magic mouse for instance just doesn't work. Touch the mouse and scroll a thousand posts, which then need to load from the server. Pretty crappy imo. I'd much rather use the iCloud service than google's but Apple has some way to go.

Wait a minute - maybe there is a class action in that. I am accustomed to Apple's products being awesome and yet parts of iCloud don't live up to my awesomeness expectations. C'mon you lawyers out there - class action time!

I know it's easy to presume anyone who sues a large company over something not life-threatening must be a lazy jerkoff looking for a quick buck, but sometimes a lawsuit is the only way to get the attention of a large company. No one would go through the hassle and expense of hiring lawyers and filing if it was simply an issue of iCloud "not being up 100% of the time" as several posters here foolishly assert.

I suggest checking out http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/ for a reality check on these types of lawsuits (the whole movie's on Netflix). It made me do a doubletake. (at least watch the Susan Saladoff interview by Stephen Colbert at the bottom of that page)

People who were paying for MobileMe have been using the service for free for the last 6 months so it is no longer a paid service and iCloud email is a free service also.

I can understand how people might be frustrated if they can't get their email, but when you rely on a free service with no guarantee, then you live with whatever deficiencies that service has or you use some other service if you are not satisfied.

If your needs are mission critical to the degree that you need to hire a paid consultant to work on your email connectivity then you should not be depending on a free service in the first place.

It's a stupid California lawsuit but interested in the merge Apple ID angle. Maybe Apple will allow that at some point, I find having two Apple IDs a pain.

It's a definite turn off to new users.

Where I work it's 98% Mac and always has been but out of the 500 or so users I deal with directly, only a small fraction were previously using Apple's mail services. Now with the rise of iOS, there is a real advantage to using iCloud and I help someone move onto it at least once a week or so. Most have got an AppleID or two over the years for one reason or another and merging these disparate ID's or creating a new one that can be merged with whatever they were using it's pretty much the number one question I get when we start talking about it.

These people are dedicated Mac users for years, many from System 7 days, they are buying into Apple's iCloud as Apple wants them to, and yet they are begin screwed over (their words not mine) by Apple simply because they failed to see the wisdom years ago of having a .Mac account.

I understand the engineering reasons behind not being able to merge accounts, but from the user level it's a a very real and large problem.

In many cases Apple is giving the middle finger to some of their oldest customers here. They generally take in in stride when they find out, but there's a golden opportunity being lost here. Apple is losing the chance to treat their customers better than they are treated elsewhere, and to make sure that their core users are being taken care of.